Rozin Vadim Markovich,

Doctor of Philosophy, Professor,

Leading Research Worker,

Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences

e-mail: rozinvm@gmail.com.

 

 

Overcoming the Nonsense of Modern Reforms and Life

 

Abstract: The article states that in order to understand the meaning of history of any society one should first determine the type of sociality which is dominant in the complex of characteristics of this society. It becomes in its turn the basis for existential choice and giving preference to some path of social development. 

 

Key words: present, reason for existence, existential choice, development path, future, type of sociality. 

 

[1] As a counter to this, another thesis can be stated as follows. Not need to work on the Western type of sociality, and create the conditions for social and cultural revival of our country. Education shall be socially oriented, and ensure the development that would make it possible to save our country as a social and cultural organism, although participating in the global division of labor, but according to its own interests and goals.

[2] Plato. Symposium // Plato. Works in 4 vol.: Vol. 2. Moscow: Thought, 1993. P. 435. 

[3] Hadot P. What is Ancient Philosophy. Moscow: Literature Humanities Press, 1999. P. 55, 57. 

[4] For example, that is what Vladimir Bibihin writes about understanding of Ludwig Wittgenstein's  “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus”. “Let’s look closely once again at the persistent, almost obsessive theme of misunderstanding in Wittgenstein's Tractatus. It has to take place. Our inertia, laziness, sluggishness, lack of mood, failure of understand are part of understanding, and substitute the dimension of bifocal vision. We should not be distracted from our reluctance and inability to understand. Our goal is not make a leap from misunderstanding to understanding, but to preserve the efforts of own thought; it is up to us first. Reading should be not paving the track for easier access, not leveling up to the level of average palinnes; it should be the same as it was to write the Tractatus, when the author was progressing from clarity to clarity. Flashes of insight are never enough, but in between the hopeless confusion the work of mapping and clearance continues. Wittgenstein says that his Tractatus will not be understood, as if to announce the name of his work: Misunderstood, Incomprehensible Tractatus. And that’s what it should be". (Bibihin V.V. Wittgenstein: The Change of Aspect. Moscow: St .Thomas Institute of Philosophy, Theology and History, 2005 . P.164).

[5] Since a methodologist understands interpretation of meaning as reconstruction, his position is subjective too, but within the framework of "double knowledge" scheme. That is a methodologist in order to explain and analyze the meaning, imagines and designs such situation (reality), that, first, is declared to be objective, and second, allows to understand what the meaning is.

[6] Plato. State // Plato. Works in 4 vol.: Vol. 4. Moscow: Thought, 1994. P. 417, 418-419. 

[7] Shchedrovitsky G.P. I Have Always Been an Idealist. Moscow: Path, 2001. P. 288, 302, 303. 

[8] Of course, our understanding of what an intelligent is and what the actual problems of today are, can be different from Shchedrovitsky’s one suggested in 1953. For me, culture is not just traditions and construction of something new, but a special form of social life, social organism, so cultural studies are though necessary, but give us not that much. As to my understanding of intelligentsia, it’s somewhat different from that of the teacher. An intelligent should be not only a thinker, but also the conscience of his age and, no less than a representative of his culture.

[9] This story is presented in my methodological novel ‘Insight in Thought’ (2002, 2006) 

[10] Neretina S.S. Points on View. St. Petersburg: Russian Christian Academy for Humanities Press, 2005.

[11] Plato. Laws. Works in 4 vol. Vol. 4. Moscow: Thought, 1994. P. 381. 

[12] It is curious that in his "Capital" Marx still failed to prove the fact of stealing a part of the surplus product by a capitalist. It is true that analyzing the mechanism of the formation of surplus value and the structure of the working day, Marx as an honest scientist (we should raise hat to him) had to admit that both the capitalist and the worker are right (Marx K., Capital. V.1. Moscow, 1978. P. 246).

[13] Latynina Y. Entry Code. [Electronic resource] // Echo of Moscow, 08.12.2012. URL: http://www.echo.msk.ru/programs/CODE/ Access date: 8.12. 2012.

[14] Brown (Zheshko) I. Saul Alinsky’s Organization Model // Management Philosophy: Issues and Projects. Moscow: Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 2013. P. 217-218, 227. 

[15] What does the author mean by egoism? Not just selfishness or egocentricity in Piaget’s terms. Both have always been typical for human, probably since Antique time. He is talking about something else. It’s those periods in the history of our civilization, when traditional notions of reality and the usual social norms are no longer actual, so humanity is forced to re-establish all this. Thus, as a rule, humans begin to rely on themselves to large extent, that is they behave selfishly, that leads to "war of all against all". This situation is particularly dramatic for Russia, because on the one hand, socialist ideas and values were destroyed, and on the other hand, Western capitalist and liberal democratic worldview is imputed, though they are going through a deep crisis themselves.

It is characteristic for modern egoism that its representatives are sure that they are the ordinary people, not egoists, and often they even think that they are altruists working for the common good. Members of international corporations who exploit local population have no doubt that their corporations, of course, are beneficial for the local, since they give them job and civilization. Russian government who is violating the rights of its citizens and taking bribes, believe that it is the only way to control our ignorant people and greedy businessmen, and everything they do is for the benefit of society. The aphorism saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions is applicable to nowadays as never before. 

For example, let’s have a look at an average official in a humanitarian organization (the same for our prefecture or UN). On the one hand, this official has to maintain his institutional status, imitating effective work (because his post guarantees his income), on the other hand, he works out schemes that allow him to transform his status and post in such a way that they bring him income (so-called "administrative rent"). Kickbacks , extension of monitored functions, putting off decision under various pretexts are the examples of such schemes. S.B.Mirzoev proves that most often it is not about isolated cases of getting illegal gratification for doing something that officials are to do under the law, but about real "rent-building", when in order to get steady or, better, increasing income at his post an official lobbies certain laws or regulations, selects ‘his’ people for certain posts, sets certain rules and regulations, that will allow him to gain the rent. Mirzov S.B. Institutional corruption [Electronic resource] URL: http://www.fondgp.ru/lib/seminars/2010-2011/institut/6. Date of access 20. 10.2011).

[16] Russian word for "authentic" comes from the phrase "the real truth" (podlinnaya pravda), which literally means "truth, told when bitten with a whip used in torture" (dlinnik).

[17] L.M. Batkin writes: “Both Vettori, who considered himself a devout and went to Mass on holidays, and Machiavelli, who frankly despised monks and clerics, behaved like traditional morality never existed < ... > It is impossible not to hear the polemical intonation in the formula of individual autonomy repeated in different ways: we should "live free and without looking back", "behave in our own way, without picking up something from the others" and "do what we should do in our own way". This was a whole new program of human existence < ... > The individual should decide for himself what suits him". (Batkin L.M. The Concept of Individual. Case study of Niccolo Machiavelli's correspondence with Francesco Vettori and others // Man and Culture . Moscow: Institute of Slavic and Balkan Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, 1990 . P. 218-219).

[18] Rozin V.M. Formation and Characteristics of Social Institutions: Cultural, Historical and Methodological Analysis. Moscow: URSS, 2012.